Ministry of Science & Technology
Indian firm manufactures drones to spray disinfectants and sanitize public spaces to contain spread of COVID-19
Mumbai, May 2, 2020
Large scale disinfection efforts have been prioritised by health workers and governments world-over, as the world community is fighting to contain the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019  and flatten the curve. Major efforts are being taken to disinfect public spaces using methods ranging from simple hand-wiping to mobile spray cannons. This is because the coronavirus gets easily inactivated by chemical disinfectants.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has issued guidelines on environmental cleaning /decontamination of common public places including offices in areas reporting COVID-19. Further, ever since COVID-19 outbreak was declared as global pandemic, Indian Cities have been making significant efforts in sanitizing the cities, especially the public spaces which are considered risk prone areas for local spread of virus. Since the nation-wide lockdown was announced on 25 March 2020, cities have been adopting numerous approaches to disinfect the public spaces including the bus/railway stations, streets, markets, hospital premises, banks, etc.
Disinfecting vast areas
The leading scientific and industrial research organizations are focussing on convenient and effective methods of disinfecting large public spaces. Disinfecting and Sanitizing India's vast area of 3.28 Million sq. km to prevent spread of Covid-19 is a huge challenge. This is a major exercise which includes spraying disinfectants at all crowded locations, marketplaces, metro stations, airports, schools, colleges, tall buildings, hospitals & Government offices. It is a huge task by current public workers undertaking a manual spraying process approach. But by employing DaaS  ecosystem to accomplish this task, the sanitization operations can be achieved in a quarter of the time. Automated Sanitization aims to address inaccessibility, speed & efficiency of public health and sanitation workers who are conducting manual spraying operations under severe health risks to themselves & their families.
Using Drones to Sanitize Public Places and Highrises
With this approach, an ISO-9001 company Garuda Aerospace has brought out an Automated Disinfecting Unmanned Aerial Vehicle  that aids in Sanitization of Public Places, Hospitals & Tall buildings. Named as ‘Corona-Killer’, these drones can be used to spray disinfectants on buildings up to 450 feet. Drone operations are faster, longer & safer than manual spraying by workers who can become potential carriers of COVID-19. Also, drones can reach heights which are not possible through manual spraying. Drone based Swacch Bharat campaign to Clean India on a regular basis will prevent the spread of COVID-19, future pandemics & communicable diseases arising due to unhygienic conditions.
These drones have already been deployed for disinfecting areas in Chandigarh and Varanasi.
Corona-Killer 100
This Corona-Killer -100 drone sanitization drone which is currently being used in 26 cities was selected as one of the top 10 socio economic innovations by NITI Aayog in 2016. It consists of patented autopilot technology, advanced flight controller system & is equipped with fuel efficient motors that enables the drone to be deployed for 12 hours a day. The features include: Payload capacity of 15-20 litres, flight duration of 40-45 minutes & maximum ceiling height of 450 feet which is sufficient to disinfect tall buildings across India. Each drone can cover 20 km a day. Garuda Aerospace’s present fleet of 300 Corona Killer-100 drones can conduct sanitization operations covering 6,000 km every single day.
Drone manufacturer Garuda Aerospace has catered to diverse needs such as agricultural survey, reconnaissance and surveillance. They have executed several government orders over the past 4 years. They also have formed a unique drone aggregator platform which can supply over 16,000 drones from various associate companies if a massive cleaning campaign takes place. This is an instance of how Indian firms are rising to the occasion and coming up with products and services to aid the community and government in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.